


Kodomo no Kokoro (Heart of a child)

by vogue91



Series: 500themes [13]
Category: Hey! Say! JUMP, Johnny's Entertainment
Genre: Children, Dinner, Established Relationship, Family Feels, Idiots in Love, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-12
Updated: 2018-06-12
Packaged: 2019-05-21 09:13:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14912594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vogue91/pseuds/vogue91
Summary: “Kei, come on, drop it. Why is there tomatoes in the yakisoba?”





	Kodomo no Kokoro (Heart of a child)

**Title:** Kodomo no Kokoro

 **Characters:** Yabu Kota, Inoo Kei

 **Pairing:** Yabu Kota/Inoo Kei

 **Rating:** G

 **Word count:** 1.727

**Prompt:[76\. Letting go. ](http://vogue91.blogspot.com/2018/05/500themes.html)**

**N/A:** The story refers to the Itadaki High Jump’s episode from 2017.10.21.

 

Kota looked puzzled. He had been staring at the pot at the centre of the table for a while now, and his face had passed a range of expressions that went from confusion to disgust.

It was the reaction Kei wanted to get, down to a T.

“Kei-chan...” he said in the end, once he had ascertain that the younger wasn’t going to let him in on the _obvious_ joke that must’ve been going on.

“Yes, Kota?” Inoo replied, tilting his head and giving him an angelic smile. Another thing about which his boyfriend knew all too well he should’ve been worried.

“We’ve known each other for a long time, right?” the other asked, taking it in little steps.

“Sixteen years and roughly one month.” Kei confirmed, the same look on his face.

“And you must’ve cooked for me like a thousand times.” he paused, wincing. “I’m sure you have the exact count somewhere to throw it in my face the day I’m going to make you mad.”

Kei gave up the pretence for a moment, and laughed.

“Well, we’ve been living together for about seven years, so I could make an educated guess if I wanted to.” he said, smiling.

“Don’t bother.” Yabu rushed to say. “Kei, come on, drop it. Why is there tomatoes in the yakisoba?” he asked, straightforward, aware that if not asked directly Kei could’ve kept that on for the whole night.

“Oh. So that’s what’s bothering you.” he said, the surprise on his face fake in an obvious way. “I'm so sorry, Ko. I just thought you liked those now.” he leant against the backrest, crossing his arms and smirking.

“Like you said, sixteen years. Have you ever seen me just put something vaguely reminding tomatoes near my mo...” Yabu stopped, as if he had just had an epiphany.

And he had.

“Do you really want to go on with that sentence?” Inoo asked, grabbing his chopsticks and taking one cherry tomato, bringing it to his mouth and savouring it as if it was the most delicious thing in the world.

“No, I don’t.” Kota muttered, shaking his head. “You’re unbelievable.” he remarked.

“What? What have I done? I seriously got concerned. Maybe during all this time you’ve always liked them and I’ve just misunderstood. Had to test a theory.” he explained, grinning.

Kota took a deep breath, looking straight into his eyes.

“I'm sure that the real reason why you did this is much more twisted and psychotic, but I have to ask: are you jealous of a six years old kid?”

Kei burst out laughing, and shook his head.

“Not the kid, per se. It would be kind of bad even for me.” he sighed, letting his eyes wander. “Remember your sister’s wedding? Or the time we went to that nice Italian place in Yokohama? Or when we went at my parents’ a couple of months ago?” he asked, his lips now barely arched into a smile.

“Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes.” was Kota answer, and he winced at the thought. “They seem to be following me everywhere.” he commented.

“And what’s your solution, each and every time?”

Yabu sighed, shrugging.

“I have you eat them.” he admitted. “But it’s not like you don’t like them. You love tomatoes, don’t you?” he asked, his eyes curious while he looked at his boyfriend. He was still missing the point.

Kei smiled, nodding.

“I do, actually. So, I don’t mind at all eating them for you. Especially because it’s one of the few things which makes me feel like the responsible adult in this relationship.” he tilted his head again, the look on his face mischievous again. “And I do it, despite the fact that instead you always refuse to eat my spinach.” he pointed out.

“I’m really not a fan.” Kota shrugged. “Kei, come on, what’s this about? So, I ate Makia-kun’s tomatoes. It seemed like the right thing to do. I was the onii-chan there, what kind of a man doesn’t offer to eat something a kid dislikes?” he said, looking pretty bothered.

He wasn’t letting this go, he couldn’t. If he had, he was going to have to eat the tomatoes, and he had no intentions of doing just that.

“I perfectly agree.” Kei nodded, thoughtful. “When I saw it, I was surprised. And I got a little mad because – okay fine, I’m a petty person – the first thing that came to my mind was that you had never done that for me. So, yes. I guess that for a couple of minutes I’ve been jealous of a six years old kid.” he admitted, and all Kota could do was smile at the look on his face.

“But then?” he asked, curious.

“But then... I don’t know. I suppose it felt good to see you do that. Like, you know. You’ve always been terrible with kids, and this time you weren’t. Most of the times. Except when you couldn’t open the bottle, of course, but that just makes you an idiot.” he said, shrugging.

Yabu frowned.

“It wasn’t easy, I had completely missed how it had to be opened. And why do you say I'm bad with kids? I...” he stopped, blushing. “Fine, so my sister said she’s never going to leave my niece alone with me again after the last time. That doesn’t make me bad with kids. I'm just not used to have them around, we can’t all have a gift like Ryosuke or Hikaru.” he muttered.

Kei laughed, then he got up and moved his chair to be closer to him.

“Okay, I’m sorry. What I meant was that I’ve never seen you being so good with a kid like with this one. And the tomato thing was part of it, that’s all.”

“So let me see if I get this straight.” Kota said, getting closer himself, bringing his arm around his boyfriend’s shoulders. “You’re not making fun of me, you’re not pointing out at some mistake I’ve made and you’re not mad at me.” he looked smug now, which was something that Kei liked very little. “Are you trying to make me a compliment, Kei-chan?” he asked, grinning.

Inoo grimaced, pulling away.

“Not really. I was just pointing out that, seen how much of a terrible man you are, it was nice to see you act like a decent person for once.” he clarified, pouting.

Kota laughed, shaking his head.

“No, what you really meant was that you’ve always thought I’m a bad person and today you finally realized that you’re wrong, and it made you feel all flustered and whatnot because it stirred your maternal instinct the right way.” he smirked. “God, I must’ve been better than I thought.” he said then, squinting a little. “What? Did you picture a picket fence and me playing soccer in the yard with a little kid calling me da...”

“Kota!” Kei stood up, hitting the table with his open hand, actually hurting himself a little. “Let this go. I shouldn’t have said anything. See why I never say good things to you? You are completely unable to take things seriously.”

He crossed his arms, turning his back on him.

He heard his chair move then, and a split second later Yabu was hugging him from behind, resting his chin on his shoulder.

“I’m sorry,  Kei-chan.” he murmured, kissing his cheek. “I know, I’m the worst. I just joke to cope with the fact that I can't take compliments. You know that.” he justified himself.

“It was a bad joke.” Kei said, clenching his teeth.

“It was.” the elder conceded. “But, see? Everything’s back to normal, I’ve made you angry.” he smiled, seeing that Kei couldn’t help but do that too. He turned him in his arms, pressing a long kiss to his lips. “I wasn’t completely joking, though. If I keep practising, perhaps one day in a whole other universe where we’re not idols or... well, Japanese, it’s something we can think about.” he suggested, shrugging.

And Kei had to use all of his willpower to take that as if he had just heard they had run out of milk.

“Yeah. Why not. Maybe.” he said in a rush, miserably failing in sounding uninterested. He sighed, pushing himself against his boyfriend. “Ko, we’re really terrible. No one in his right mind would ever give a kid to us.” he winced. “I’m going to have to pretend with the social workers I’m married to Hikaru. Or Ryosuke. Or Dai-chan. Or, damn, even Yuya’s better than us!” he complained, and Kota burst out laughing.

“They are, you’re right.” he confirmed. “So, we’re going to practice together. It’s not like ItaJan isn’t already trying to turn us into perfect parents anyway. I think Johnny-san is trying to make us want to have a family and leave the Jimusho, somehow.” he said, smiling.

Kei snorted and sat back on the chair, looking up at him.

“Well, we’re going to please the boss, then.” he commented, then he grabbed his chopsticks, taking a tomato. “Now, as for practising, I can wake you up in the middle of the night dressed as a tomato and pretend we’re in a dream to make you like them. Or you can prove me just how manly you are and do this the easy way.” he said, stretching his arm.

Yabu looked at him as if he had gotten mad. Then he got back to his chair as well, trying to look dignified.

“Submit a request to the show and have them send Hikaru. He’s better at it than us anyway.” he said, taking a tomato from his place and handing it to him.

And Kei was about to get mad, to tell him that he was a child, that they were never going to have kids if they couldn’t stop being children themselves.

But he gave up, and ate it.

“Delicious.” he moaned, then he leant over and kissed Yabu, ignoring his wince.

They had all the time in the world to practise, he told himself.

Meanwhile, he was going to enjoy his time with the kid he currently had there. And it was enough work already he realized, while Kota titled his plate, putting all the tomatoes on Kei’s yakisoba.

“Onegaishimasu, onii-chan.” he smirked.

...or, perhaps, he was going to have to marry Hikaru, after all.


End file.
